Stereoselective total syntheses of (+)-exo- and (−)-exo-brevicomins, (+)-endo- and (−)-endo-brevicomins, (+)- and (−)-cardiobutanolides, (+)-goniofufurone

From Glycals to Nitrogen Heterocycles and Carbocycles via "Cleavage-Intramolecular Recombination Strategy"

Glycals (carbohydrate enol-ethers) have enjoyed profound applications in organic synthesis for more than a century. They not only serve as versatile glycosyl donors or as substrates for Ferrier rearrangement, but also find extensive synthetic applications especially as a "chiral pool" for accomplishing the synthesis of a variety of natural and biologically important compounds. As cyclic enol ethers, they demonstrate high reactivity and are among the most and variously transformable monosaccharide derivatives. The uniqueness of the reactivity of glycals is that they can be synthetically tuned to get a library of derivatives through stereo- and regioselective introduction of a variety of functional groups at C1, C2, C3 as well as C4 carbons of the sugar. We have developed a practical approach for stereoselective mono- and diamination of glycals and over the years utilized these scaffolds for the synthesis of a variety of biologically important nitrogen heterocycles and carbocycles through a "Diversity Oriented Approach". Our synthetic strategy in this direction mainly relied on the cleavage of ring O-C bond of the sugar followed by an "intramolecular recombination" reaction. Utilizing this strategy, we have accomplished the synthesis of several biologically important natural products, their analogues and related unnatural derivatives. Examples of such compounds reported from our group include polyhydroxypyrrolidines, DMDP, anisomycin, steviamine, pochonicine, conduramines, bulgecinine, aminocyclitols, azepanes, 4-hydroxy-D-proline, azanucleosides and their analogues. A personal account highlighting these syntheses is presented here.

Synthesis of anti-proliferative [3.3.0]furofuranone derivatives by lactonization and functionalization of C-glycosyl compounds

The [3.3.0]furofuranone structure is found in numerous families of biologically active natural products. We took advantage of the stereodiversity afforded by carbohydrate derivatives to prepare several compounds structurally similar to goniofufurone and crassalactones which are natural cytotoxic agents. We designed and synthesized several stereoisomers of these natural compounds via lactonization of C-glycosyl compounds bearing an hydroxyl on position 4 and a methyl ester on the pseudo-anomeric positionThe reactivity of this bicyclic moiety was explored through etherification of hydroxyls in position 5 and 7 and various substituants (halogen, phenyl, benzyl, cynanmoyl) were introduced. The anti-proliferative properties of these mimics were then evaluated on various cancer cell lines and two compounds 24 and 35 demonstrated IC₅₀ value of 1.34 µM (U251) and 7.60 µM (U87) respectively.

Synthetic Approaches to Phosphasugars (2-oxo-1,2-oxaphosphacyclanes) Using the Anomeric Alkoxyl Radical β-Fragmentation Reaction as the Key Step

The anomeric alkoxyl radical β-fragmentation (ARF) of carbohydrates possessing an electron-withdrawing group (EWG) at C2, promoted by PhI(OAc)₂/I₂, gives rise to an acyclic iodide through which a pentavalent atom of phosphorus can be introduced via the Arbuzov reaction. After selective hydrolysis and subsequent cyclization, the phosphonate or phosphinate intermediates can be converted into 2-deoxy-1-phosphahexopyranose and 2-deoxy-1-phosphapentopyranose sugars. The ARF of carbohydrates with an electron-donor group (EDG) at C2 proceeds by a radical-polar crossover mechanism, and the cyclization occurs by nucleophilic attack of a conveniently positioned phosphonate or phosphinate group to the transient oxocarbenium ion. This alternative methodology leads to 5-phosphasugars with a 4-deoxy-5-phosphapentopyranose framework. The structure and conformation of the 2-oxo-1,2-oxaphosphinane and 2-oxo-1,2-oxaphospholane ring systems in different carbohydrate models have been studied by NMR and X-ray crystallography.

Ring closing metathesis (RCM) approach to the synthesis of conduramine B-2, ent-conduramine F-2, aminocyclopentitol and trihydroxyazepane

The syntheses of conduramine B-2, ent-conduramine F-2, aminocyclopentitol and trihydroxyazepane were accomplished from a common precursor, through a divergent approach using ring closing metathesis (RCM) as the key step. Tri-O-benzyl-d-glucal was converted to 3,4,6-tri-O-benzyl-1,2-dideoxy-2-iodo-1-p-toluenesulfonamido-α-d-mannose. Exposure to NaBH4 in MeOH resulted in a facile 1,2-transposition of the -NHTs group with concomitant glycosylation to give methyl 3,4,6-tri-O-benzyl-2-deoxy-2-p-toluenesulfonamido-β-d-glucoside, which was converted into methyl 6-deoxy-6-iodo-glucoside in three steps. Zinc-mediated Vasella's rearrangement proceeded smoothly to give the pluripotent formyl-olefin, possessing both electrophilic and nucleophilic sites, which was used as a common precursor in our diversity-oriented approach. Vinylation of the carbonyl group followed by RCM and subsequent deprotection resulted in the successful synthesis of conduramine B-2 and ent-conduramine F-2 for the first time. On the other hand, the Wittig reaction of the formyl-olefin affords the diene that undergoes Grubbs' I catalyzed RCM and deprotection/reduction to provide 3-amino-cyclopentan-1,2-diol. Utilizing the nucleophilic site at the nitrogen of the common precursor, base mediated N-allylation was carried out to obtain the corresponding diene that underwent a smooth RCM to afford trihydroxyazepane.

A comparative study of chromatographic behavior and lipophilicity of selected natural styryl lactones, their derivatives and analogues

This study is based on the analyses of the retention behavior of selected natural styryl lactones and their synthetic analogues in reversed-phase high-performance liquid chromatography. Chromatographic separations were achieved applying ZORBAX SB-C18 column and two different mobile phases: methanol-water and acetonitrile-water. Chromatographic lipophilicity of the analyzed compounds was defined by logk₀ constant and correlated with in silico molecular descriptors. According to the statistical validation parameters, obtained results indicate that the presented linear and multiple quantitative structure-retention relationship models can successfully predict the chromatographic lipophilicity of structurally similar compounds. Hierarchical cluster analyses (HCA) was applied in order to group similar compounds according to their chromatographic and in silico lipophilicity. It can be concluded that chromatographic systems with methanol-water were better for modelling of logk₀. Modelling was performed in order to characterize compounds regarding their lipophilicity profiles as future drug candidates.

The evolution of comprehensive strategies for furanoid glycal synthesis and their applications

Cyclic enol ether frameworks, especially stereochemically pure furanoid and pyranoid glycals are well known highly functionalized chiral building blocks.

‘Chiron’ approach to stereoselective synthesis of sphinganine and unnatural safingol, an antineoplastic and antipsoriatic agent

Highly stereoselective total syntheses of sphinganine 1 and antineoplastic and antipsoriatic drug safingol 17 have been demonstrated.

Glycal approach to the synthesis of macrolide (−)-A26771B

A convergent synthesis of macrolide natural product (−)-A26771B starting from d-glucal is reported. Key features of this synthesis involve Ferrier rearrangement, cross metathesis of chiral fragments 3 and 4 and Yamaguchi macrolactonization.

Substrate and stereocontrolled iodocycloetherification of highly functionalized enantiomerically pure allylic alcohols: application to synthesis of cytotoxic 2-epi jaspine B and its biological evaluation

A mechanistic study on iodocycloetherification of enantiopure allylic alcohols is established. Its application to synthesis of marine cytotoxic 2-epi jaspine B has been demonstrated.

A chiron approach to aminocytitols by Petasis-Borono-Mannich reaction: formal synthesis of (+)-conduramine E and (-)-conduramine E

A chiron approach to a stereoselective route for the synthesis of aminocytitols from carbohydrates is described. The formal synthesis of (+)-conduramine E and (-)-conduramine E was achieved by utilizing this strategy. The key features of the synthetic strategy include one-pot three-component Petasis-Borono-Mannich reaction to introduce the syn-β-amino alcohol functionality of conduramine E and ring-closing metathesis to construct its carbocyclic core. The present synthetic approach paves the way for stereoselective synthesis of several conduramines starting from carbohydrates.